Move over, MAX: Meet WES

The Westside Express Service, which begins Monday,
could be the start of a commuter rail movement

You've met MAX, and you know what to expect of him. But nobody knows quite what to expect of his burly cousin, WES.

WES, the nickname for the new Westside Express Service, showed up in town recently, and he's a very different kind of fellow. Old-fashioned guy. Bit of a heavyweight, too. You don't mess with WES.

The Westside Express Service is the first heavy-rail commuter line in Oregon, running on 15 miles of existing freight track, which once boasted passenger trains. Some people who have to commute to Salem every day -- including some Oregon legislators -- are already talking about extending WES to Salem.

Handsome and fast, WES is capable of going 60 mph. (MAX tops out at 55, but averages 20.) Starting today, WES will run weekdays from 5:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., linking Wilsonville to Tualatin, Tigard, Washington Square and
Beaverton.

But who, exactly, will ride the Westside Express? TriMet predicts that by 2020, 4,600 people will be riding, but in reality, no one knows. WES is one of the biggest experiments that TriMet has undertaken.

Building the train took more than 15 years, federal and state help, along with the pivotal leadership of Washington County's Tom Brian, dubbed "the grandfather and the godfather," who got the train built.

TriMet went further than it ever has before, and further than perhaps it should have gone, to get the rail cars manufactured. The agency invested in a shaky Colorado rail company that wound up going belly-up.

But there are other big question marks hanging over WES. A suburb-to-suburb connection is a novelty for the region. Another complication: To get to work, most riders will have to take the train to another train, or to a bus -- or perhaps a van supplied by an employer. More parking places will be essential eventually, particularly in Beaverton.

Because of the new train's speed, the Wilsonville-to-Beaverton connection is only
27 minutes. But add in the time you spend traveling to the train or riding a bus to connect to your employer after you get off, and any journey on WES could be a very long ride.

Still, what the Westside Express has going for it is comfort, even luxury by comparison with MAX. Add in dining service and sleeping cars, and you're riding on a veritable Orient Express. As some of the dignitaries who rode the train Friday noted,
WES still has that new-train smell.

More to the point, it has free Internet Wi-Fi service, which actually works. So if you take your laptop along, you could spend all your time on board working (or perhaps, in this economy, looking for a job). That is, if you're not too distracted by the view, which is compelling in parts of the journey.

We've had our worries about WES, and we'll be keeping an eye on the operation. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed that this burly cousin adds to TriMet's luster.

But given the transit agency's overall 40-year record of success, we suspect most people in the region will be delighted to welcome this fast, fresh newcomer into the family.